This chapter marks the end of Olympia and we'd be saying bye bye to our fictional friends from Stilling the Storm by Iyanuoluwa-Temi if you're still not reading your book, well, you're on your own.

                                   ~KUNMI~

The night dragged on for forever till it was finally dawn.

It was finally the last day of Olympia and it was supposed to be a fun filled day. They were lots of fun activities lined up for today, games, hangout and the likes before it'd finally be the time for the highlight of the day, the award's night, more like a dinner to commemorate our days during the Olympia. It was what Aminah had looked forward to the most. She had personally made her mom get her gown from one of the best fashion Empires in the country. It was a huge babyish gown that made me laugh when I saw it and that made me ask her what she was going to wear to our prom.

But now, the girl that had been anticipating the Award's night was just lying on her bed, eyes fixed on her phone and so quiet, so stilly quiet that it was hard to believe that she was even in the room.

Aminah should be the one screaming my head off and begging me to hurry up so we'd go and join others under the pavilion. Most of the students were there, hanging out, making memories with their new friends that they might never even see again. Even Elyon and Tolani were not in the room.

We shouldn't be in the room on a normal day but there wasn't anything normal again about us, not since Olympia started, especially not after yesterday.

Yesterday.

The memories of what happened yesterday flashed unbridled in my mind and it was enough to turn my blood to ice.

That Sophia. That tone. That wickedness and evil. That wasn't the Sophia I was used to. That wasn't the Sophia I know.

That wasn't the Sophia I know.

Am I even sure I knew her at all?

It's no fun if you're acting this way.

You were the one who advised me to go for him. You told me to make an attempt even though he had a girlfriend. Why are you acting so pathetic now that you've realized that you're the girlfriend?

The stupid and annoying advice that Aminah gave her during that sleepover. I've always thought she was going to use it against her. Knowing the Sophia then, I knew she was going to use it against her, then, I became closer to her and I started to see that weird and childish side to her and I thought that was all to her, that the other side, the proud and stuck up and mean one was the facade and that she'd never hurt Aminah, at least not like that.

But could I have been more wrong?

And you were the one who said you'd take a cheating boyfriend back so why are you acting like this now?

The way she said those words, the fact that she could even say those words in that manner to a girl that was obviously hurting and falling apart in front of her was inhuman. Very inhumane.

I remembered that day clearly now. The day at Ibadan when we were in the hotel room and Aminah and Sophia had gotten into that argument about that fat girl taking back a cheating partner or not. Aminah had insisted she'd have taken him part if he was sorry and Sophia had said 'I'd advice you as a friend, not to take him back.'

They weren't even friends. They've never even been friends.

And afterwards, on that particular, I had stumbled into Sophia and Kunle hugging against the wall and in the dark.

No way.

Oh come on, no way!

The hairs on my neck stood up and I sat up with a start on the bed.

No way.

No way.

That's not possible.

It can't possibly be possible. Ko possible now.

It's not possible.

I heard a loud chuckle from somewhere in the room and it was only when Aminah sat up on her bed and she looked at me warily that I realized I was the one that just chuckled and my right hand was even frozen in mid air in a dismissal wave.

But then, it just wasn't possible! Sophia did not talk to me for days because she was angry that I assumed that worse of her and then, she eventually voiced it out that it really hurt her that I would think that way of her.

She wouldn't possibly lie to my face like that. She couldn't have done something like that. She isn't that kind of person.

And just what kind of person is she?

It's no fun if you're acting this way.

My phone vibrated beside me and I unlocked the screen to see a message from Adam.

Hey babe, still waiting for you at the Central Market. Are you still coming? And Aminah...

I looked away from the phone's screen to where Aminah was sitting up on her bed. She was still looking at me, nah, she was staring intently at me as if she was trying to figure out something on my face.

The way she was staring at me was creepy and eerie that I found myself adjusting how I sat on the bed.

Just what was going on in that girl's head? When and how did Aminah become like this?

After Sophia saw me at the rooftop yesterday, she started to say something but it was that moment Aminah started walking away too, ignoring me or rather acting oblivious to my presence. I had turned and ran after her, ignoring Sophia who called my name and when I finally caught up with Aminah and whirled her around by grabbing her wrist, her face turned me into pieces, shattered jy heart completely.

She was crying with tears falling out in torrents from her eyes. For someone who had always liked Sophia, who practically adored the floor she walked on, having Sophia completely overwrite and trivialise her feelings and talk to her that way must have really made her realize the harsh truth.

That Sophia never liked her and probably would never like her.

And the fact that she even cheated with her boyfriend.

I couldn't even bear to think about that.

"Aminah, I'm sorry... I did not..."

She shrugged my hands off angrily.

"Of course you did not, it has always been like that. You're not the first person so I guess..." She shrugged nonchalantly, "I should be used to it by now."

I attempted to grab her hands again and she moved back.

"God! Aminah! What are you talking about? What's going on? Why are you...?" I trailed off, exasperated beyond comprehension.

"Everything is going on!" She screamed right back at me, shocking me with the intensity of anger and rage in her voice and eyes. Her eyes were glazy and shinning with unshed tears and mad rage and I found myself moving back.

"You! All of you. Every single person I've met... You guys..." She trailed off again and she breathed out deeply before she covered her eyes with her palms.

I noticed how shaky her hands were that she could barely place them over her face properly.

When she spoke again, her voice was quiet and subdued and solemn and everything painful. "You have no idea what it means to be me."

Then she walked away, leaving me scared.

Totally scared.

When I finally gathered myself and followed her, she was already lying down on her bed in the room, duvet covering her entire body.

And now, she was just staring at me eerily that I even had to clear my throat.

Then she surprised me completely by saying;

"It's the last day of Olympia, we shouldn't
miss out all the fun."

Ehn?

I stared at her, utterly bewildered. She sounded normal as if I had imagined how everything had been with her since Olympia started. For a minute, I did not say anything, I could not say anything, I just kept looking at her.

"Kunmi, stop looking at me like that and let's go. We can't allow others to have all the fun without us."

I still did not say anything. I still could not say anything. Then finally, I cleared my throat.

"Aminah, are you okay?"

Her reply was instantaneous, "Of course, I'm okay. My boyfriend cheated on me with his best friend that had always hated me. Yes, it's not the end of the world. It's going to be fine someday."

My boyfriend cheated on me with his best friend that had always hated me.

I repeated the words over and over in my head. I was still trying to come into terms with that fact but I just couldn't.

I couldn't imagine Sophia and Kunle together, not like that.

It was unfair to Aminah but I was really thinking that maybe Sophia said those things to spite or to prove a point.

I was actually really hoping and praying that that would be the case.

"Sophia would probably hold a knife to my neck if she should get the chance." She continued, a sad wistful tone to her voice, "But again, it's not the end of the world."

"Aminah..."

"Let's go." She interrupted and she started to get up from bed but she staggered with so much force that she fell back on the bed and I did not miss the painful gasp that escaped from her mouth and how she clutched her lower abdomen.

I was beside her in no minute, remembering and feeling the dread of that night on the field.

"Are you okay?" I asked and I touched her forehead to feel her temperature. It was normal, at least to best of my knowledge.

"I'm fine." She replied after a minute but that was an obvious lie. She wasn't fine at all.

"Aminah, are you sick?"

Her head jerked up with so much force that it startled me. "Of course, I'm not. Why would you even ask something like that?" She replied, avoiding my eyes before she stood up hurriedly and she started fumbling through her clothes as if searching for what to wear. I watched as she fumbled through her clothes and I did not miss how her fingers trembled. She soon turned to me again and she held up one of her tops.

"What do you think of this top? Should I wear it?" She asked in all sincerity with a childish glee, as if I had imagined the past one minute, as if she did not just act up when I asked her if she was sick.

"Wow. How's that..." I trailed off, exasperated beyond measure. I wanted to yell and scream and shake her continuously till she tell me every single thing, till she returns to the Aminah before Olympia but the girl standing in front of me was just looking at me with that calm and serene expression in her eyes as if I was just acting up, as if I was the weird one.

"Are you seriously asking me that? You're asking me about a fine top when everyday, you keep acting like a shadow of yourself, as if something bigger than you is happening to you... And that other time at the field, your hair fell off and No, it wasn't normal!"

She looked at me full in the face for a full seconds, her eyes filling up with something akin to fear. Then she touched her hair slowly, as if in a trance; "My hair fell off?"

She said it slowly, in a tone that suggested that she knew exactly why her hair was falling off but she just couldn't believe that her hair was already falling off.

God! Was this girl really sick and she was keeping it away from us?

"Aminah! God! What's going on? Why don't you just tell us if you're sick before it's too late? Why don't you..."

"Nothing is going on." She interrupted tightly before she started to turn her back to me. I was standing up and directly in front of her in no seconds.

"Aminah! Something is obviously going on. Why are you..."

"God! I said nothing is going on. Why are you so interested now? Are you wishing something would be going on with me!?" She screamed right back at me, shocking me with the intensity of anger and sheer lividness in her voice and eyes.

She was legit blazing daggers and brimstone at me.

I staggered back.

"Of course not, why would you even think about something..."

"Good!" She interrupted before turning her back to me. She even started change her clothe leaving me in total bewilderment.

"I'm going to the hangout." She said after a minute, interrupting the stillness and quietness of the room, "Let's go together."

Let's go together after she just shocked me out of my mind?

But I found myself saying yes and I wasn't sure if it was because I did not want her to go off alone or because the let's go together sounded so much like a desperate plea.

   
                               **********

It was another shade of Aminah that followed me to the central market where the hangout was going on. Right from the moment I agreed to follow her, she became so chatty and energised as if... I don't even know what the word was again.

Was I over-imagining things?

That sadness, the bouts of depression, the bout of deep seethed anger that was everything but Aminah.

Who was the real person? Or did I even know her at all? And what exactly was going on?

I was watching her, watching her every features, watching to see if there'd be any slip up but Aminah actually seemed to be enjoying herself. She seemed to be having the time of her life even.

How does she even do that? Less than an hour ago, she actually looked like she was going to shrink and fade into nothingness but now, she looked happy, carefree, she looked like the real and original Aminah.

"Hey, are you okay?" Adam whispered into my ears and I nodded, plastered a smile on my face to convince him that I wasn't fine. But I wasn't fine and nothing was fine at all.

He looked like he did not believe me. He looked at me skeptically as if it was unreasonable for me to lie that I was okay when he could see right through me.

"I know you're not okay. What's up with you and Sophia?" He asked again, titling his head towards where Sophia sat across us. She was sitting on the other side of the circle, eyes totally fixed on her phone as her well manicured fingers hovered over the screen.

When Aminah and I got here, I had immediately singled her out. That wasn't done consciously, it was just something with Sophia; she'd always stand out and shine even when she was doing absolutely doing, especially when she was doing absolutely nothing.

She was talking with Skye when we walked in and when she looked up and our eyes met, I was surprised at the still calmness in her eyes. Last night, she had looked absolutely horrified that when she saw me but now, she looked almost angry.

It reminded me of that last time too, she was angry too that I had concluded that she was cheating with Kunle. Maybe it was happening all over again. Maybe she was angry that I had little faith in her. That it took me just hearing that to believe that she actually cheated, that she could actually cheat.

But I heard her say those words... What could... My heart leaped up when this random thought slipped into my mind. Maybe she actually said those words to spite Aminah or to prove a point.

But what point? What point could she actually want to prove by hurting a girl that was already hurting way too much?

Just what... Just what could possibly be going on between those two girls?

Adam nudged me by my sides and I opened my mouth, started to say something but was cut off by the sound of deep resonating laughter from every other person sitting under the shed which were basically our limelight friends and just the four of us, Adam, Aminah, Sophia and I. All of them were laughing at something Mateo must have said except Adam and I who weren't paying attention and Sophia who was basically acting as if she wasn't even here.

"Mateo, what do you mean? Soma isn't throwing punches but that doesn't mean he's not good for other things." She emphasised on the other, causing Elyon and Skye to fake shock from their facial expressions. Then she shocked them even more by adding, "And trust me, we're not even talking about Academics here."

"Ehn?" Both Elyon and Skye chorused again before they burst into a full blown laughter. Mateo and Jamal joined in too and Aminah... Her laughter rang out the loudest.

The guy in question was just grinning to himself and his girlfriend who was sitting beside him even proceeded to wrap her two arms around him.

I looked away from them. The things people do and say in public will never cease to amaze me.

Just because you and Adam do it every time in private, right?

My face colored up at that thought and beside me, Adam chuckled as if he could hear my thoughts and he was amused by it. I dared a glance at him and the pretty boy actually had the nerve to wink at my expense.

See why I don't like this boy.

"Well, I think without any argument, Vanessa and Soma are like the baddest couple ever. No on or off switch whatsoever... They're not..."

"Ehn! No way, Elyon, have you seen Skye and Mateo? Do you even..."

"Oh God! Venesssa, what are you talking about?" Skye interrupted in a surprisingly loud but coy voice and because she was so fair, it was easy to see the reddening of her cheeks.

Soon enough, the three girls were arguing playfully about which couple had gotten it worse while their boyfriends were just busy laughing their heads off.

I looked at them, suddenly envious of how close knitted they all were compared to us. We started Olympia with high dreams and hopes but look at us now, the whole Aminah fiasco.

Then Aminah and Kunle.

Aminah and Sophia.

Sophia and Kunle and Aminah.

And even Alex and Gab who I never thought could have that kind of massive fall out.

They weren't even here. Gab was probably somewhere reading a Chemistry textbook as if her life depends on it, Alex was probably somewhere doing only God knows what and Kunle, I felt a sudden rush of anger just at the thought of his name. I did not just want to think about him at all.

How could he do that to Aminah and still be fine?

"And why do I feel like Aminah and Kunle are the baddest couple from Crescent High? You, tell us, Aminah." Skye said suddenly to Aminah who looked startled for a minute as if she wasn't expecting her to include her in their conversation and even more startled that she was asked to talk about Kunle.

It was an innocent and normal question but it was just asked at a very wrong time.

"Oh, Kunle? There's really not much to say." She replied, sounding so much like a coy girlfriend.

It surprised me because just how much, could Aminah act like she was fine when she wasn't.

"Eeh, come on, I'm sure there's something..."

"Maybe she's just shy." Venesssa interrupted in a surprisingly stern voice, then she started to recount her experience with a mad man successfully cutting off that conversation. I looked away from her to Aminah whose head was now downcast.

And I did not miss that lone tear that rolled down her cheek even though she was quick to wipe it away.

Oh Aminah! What am I going to do with you?

                              ***********

It was nightfall, the dinner was over and everyone was already heeding towards their hostels. I was walking towards where Aminah was waiting for me at the pathway leading to the female hostel. She had gone even more quiet and still after Skye had asked her to talk about her relationship and that quietness and stillness had remained till we returned to room and instead of laying down on her bed like she had been doing every time, she went to stand by the window and she just stood there, staring into nothingness for hours on end.

It was as if the moment we entered Olympia grounds, we got teleported into another world entirely, a world that was a far cry from our reality in school, a world where playful and jovial Aminah could become someone like this.

It was something I couldn't just grasp.

Then when it was time for the dinner and Elyon came to the room to start dressing up, Aminah turned to me, face full of happiness and excitement and she begged, cajoled me with her childishness that we should attend the dinner.

I couldn't even say no even if I wanted to. I just followed her biddings as if in a trance. I allowed her to do my face, do everything she wanted like a puppet and now, the award ceremony was over. We all sat together, even Kunle, Alex and Gab and it was awkward, really awkward. It was almost like the six of us were totally strangers who suffered from social anxiety.

The only person that tried to strike up conversations between us was Aminah who kept trying to talk to her brooding boyfriend and even Adam but it just wasn't it and even though the award seemed to be interesting because of the occasional bouts of excited shouts from the other tables apart from ours but it seemed like the excitement just couldn't reach us.

Everything was just so quiet and still.

Kunle was brooding as if he was having some sort of internal turmoil.

Sophia was just like the first impression I had of her, extremely quiet and acting oblivious of every other person in the room.

And Alex and Gab? Alex wouldn't stop staring at her and at some point, he even abandoned his food, relaxed fully on his chair to make a proper job of staring at the girl who wasn't even looking at him at all.

It was just like we were existing in a totally different reality far from the one we were living in school. Maybe when we return to school on Monday, this Olympia week sill just bf like one long nightmare.

Then Aminah excused herself when the event was almost over and now, I was walking towards her when...

"Kunmi, can we talk?"

I stopped at the voice. It was Sophia's and when I met her eyes, it was blank and expressionless. It was the first time in forever that she did not call me Baby Kay. I wondered what she wanted to talk about. Was it about what I overheard? Was she going to confirm that it was all lies and that I had it all wrong? I started to nod my head, to say yes when I remembered that Aminah was waiting for me.

"Aminah is..." I started to say, then looked up to where Aminah was initially standing but she was gone from that spot.

"Can we?" She asked again and I nodded, silently hoping that she'd clear up all these misunderstandings.

Silently hoping and wishing that this was all going to be a very big misunderstanding on my path.

It's no fun if you're acting this way.

I remember the tone, her voice, her stance when she said those words. That wasn't Sophia.

At least, the wasn't the Sophia I know.

We were by now at a secluded corner far from the main buildings. There were big rocks on the ground and Sophia was quick to sit down on one. For minutes, she said nothing, she just sat there and I stood away from her wondering why she had called me here if she was not going to say anything.

"Ohhh," She cleared her throat nervously and when I looked at her, I noticed that she was almost fidgeting where she sat. "Who would have thought it could get this awkward between the both of us?" She muttered almost quietly, her voice sounding chirpy and I frowned.

Sophia sure did not call me here to tell me what was awkward or not.

I did not reply her and after a long minute, she finally looked up at me. She looked torn between being conflicted and expectant like a child.

"Were you and Kunle ever together?" The words were out of my mouth before I could even process them but I needed to know the truth.

Her expression changed at my question and it soon morphed into bleakness. I half expected her to storm off angrily, to laugh and call our friendship bluff because I was so quick to believe the worst about her and the next word she said almost freeze my world over.

"Yes."

Wow! I shifted back, pursued my lips, smoothed my gown, then stood up straighter. I just felt the need to do something as if that would erase that word she just said.

"Even when he was with Aminah?" I asked, my voice sounding eerily quiet and foreign to even my own ears.

"Yes," She replied again, in her voice that wasn't hers. She sounded subdued.

Wow!

I staggered back, still willing my ears to unhear what I just heard but it was true. Sophia just admitted to cheating with Kunle.

Kunle actually cheated on Aminah with Sophia.

They were together behind our backs and they had the nerve to smile and laugh in front of us? Was Aminah a joke to them? Did they laugh behind her back while they were hooking up?

Kunle and Sophia.

Kunle and Sophia.

Kunle and Aminah. I thought they were cool together, with the way he was always fawning over her before Olympia started but that was all a lie?

"Wow," I said, finding my voice. "Wow." I muttered again, quietly still trying to wrap my head around the absurdity of everything.

Sophia and Kunle cheated?

They actually cheated?

But Sophia told me she was going to give up on him? Was that a lie?

Was everything a lie?

"Why would you even do something like that? Why? What for? Did you do this to prove a point? Because Aminah advised you to go for the guy you like even though he was with someone?" I asked, the words spilling out of me. I should have seen it coming. At first, she had given me that kind of impression that she was the kind of person that'd do something like that. Then, she started changing and I started to think maybe that was all bluff but who was I to think that it was all bluff when even Adam that had been her friend since forever wasn't sure of what she was capable of doing.

It was all starting to fall into place now, that silly advice she gave to Aminah when we travelled to Ibadan and that very day, I had seen her with Kunle in the dark, hugging themselves...

"Ibadan... When we were in Ibadan, that night when I saw you and Kunle..."

I did not need to finish my question to know the answer. It was written all over her. The way her hands shook and her lips trembled. The guilt, the shame, the realization that I had found out.

Sophia really lied to me? To my face? Stringing me along like that? Because of what?

Aminah.

I was finally starting to see it. It had been there all along but I was so quick to ignore the obvious. Sophia was always putting Aminah down, always trivialising her feelings, always making her feel irrelevant and left out even though the latter always ignored that. She adored Sophia. She basically worshipped the ground Sophia walked on but Sophia never liked her or was what she felt towards her just plain envy and blind jealousy?

Oh God! Poor Aminah!

Sophia stood up.

"Kunmi, I know what this looks like. I'm sorry, I should have just come out clean with..."

"Why are you so obsessed with Aminah by the way? Why do you always make her feel so bad about herself? Always trivialising her feelings and just putting her down when the girl is so smitten by you. Why do I feel like you cheating with Kunle is not even about your feelings for him but because of Aminah? Why are you so infatuated with her? Are you jealous of her?"

I hurled the words at her, thinking about Aminah, about how dejected and desolate she had become because of everything, how light was getting sucked out of me, how she was becoming a shadow of herself. The tears, the mood swings, the sadness, all that pain.

Everything because of Sophia and Kunle.

Sophia looked at me as if she did not believe I could yell at her. Did she think I'd still pick her side because I consider her a very good friend now? I've always felt pity for her because she had to watch Kunle and Aminah together almost everyday but they were getting together behind her back so was that even worth it again?

And to think with everything, I did not believe Aminah and she knew I did not believe her. How lonely, how dejected that girl must have been?

I turned back, ignoring Sophia who seemed to be sobbing. I needed to get to Aminah, to tell her how sorry that I am, to be there for her just like she was there for me when i needed a friend the most.

When I got to the room, the first person I noticed was Tolani. She was sitting down on her bed, legs raised to her chin and her arms wrapped around her legs. I remembered I hadn't seen her around since morning. She wasn't there for the hangout and I was pretty sure she wasn't there for the dinner.

But she wasn't even my concern, my concern was the girl that wasn't on her bed, in the room, on the rooftop or anywhere she could possibly be.

It took searching the whole places where Aminah used to go to to know that she was nowhere to be found.

Only God knows where Aminah could have gone to now 😩😩😩

Sophia and Kunle cheated? I'm equally surprised but nobody is a saint. They're humans and they're bond to make mistakes except is this even a mistake? 🤔🤔🤔

We're going back to school in the next chapter and the only thing I can say is, well, brace yourself, things are about to get really messy.

And by the way, hope your fav is still your fav? Mine is still mine tho 😎😎😎♥️♥️♥️

See you when I see you ♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️